A Tale of Two Lenores Read online

  A Tale Of Two Lenores

  A Hylton Mystery

  Book Two

  Terry Mattingly

  This book is a work of fiction. The town of Hylton, Kentucky is fictional as is Port City, Indiana. To the best of my knowledge there is no Club Nocturno in New York City. The characters in this book are fictional and any similarities to real people are coincidental. The Edgar Allan Poe poems, A Dream Within a Dream and To___, where taken from Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe: Poe, Edgar Allan. Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1966. Printed in United States of America.

  Cover Image source: Barbara A. Lane: https://pixabay.com/get/scene

  License: Creative Commons Public Domain.

  © 2019 Terry Mattingly

  A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM

  Edgar Allan Poe

  1849

  Take this kiss upon the brow!

  And, in parting from you now,

  This much let me avow-

  You are not wrong, who deem

  That my days have been a dream;

  Yet if hope has flown away

  In a night, or in a day,

  In vision, or in none,

  Is it therefore the less gone?

  All that we see or seem

  Is but a dream within a dream.

  I stand amid the roar

  Of a surf-tormented shore,

  And I hold within my hand

  Grains of the golden sand-

  How few! Yet how they creep

  Through my fingers to the deep,

  While I weep—while I weep!

  O God! Can I not grasp

  Them with a tighter clasp?

  O God! Can I not save

  One from the pitiless wave?

  Is all that we see or seem

  A dream within a dream?

  Thanks, Lisa

  Prologue

  April 1900

  Lenore Wilkes loved everything about this old plantation, from the twin maple trees in the front yard from which the place derived its name to the two-story Italianate house with the wide front porch and the widow walk from where one could see the Ohio river flowing by. Lenore’s favorite thing about her childhood home, however, was a place known simply as The Bluff, a rocky outcropping over hanging the river. There is a secret cave at its base that was once part of the underground railroad. If a person listened, they could hear the ghosts of the poor hapless souls who died in the bowels of the cave waiting for the next leg of the journey, moaning in agony.

  Whatever secrets the ground beneath the bluff held, Lenore cared not. The Bluff is where she always went to think; a place to dream and wonder, as well as her healing place when Lenore had “a spell of ‘nerves’, the term Lenore’s mother applied to the child’s episodes of despondency during which Lenore would talk only to Sissy. Sissy, the daughter of Mrs. Wilkes personal maid, was Lenore’s companion since birth. Lenore’s own mother was unable to nurse her new infant, so her maid Wilma acted as wet nurse. Wilma produced enough milk for her two. Sissy became Lenore’s friend, confidant, and personal maid as the girls aged.

  Lenore’s parents suffered through their daughter’s tendency to become angry and lash out when thwarted. The girl spoilt, the parents consoled each other. They hoped that Lenore would leave both the spells of depression and temper tantrums behind when the girl reached her womanhood. Lenore did improve in so much as the temper tantrums decreased, but her depressed moods continued, no better, no worse. It was at these times that Lenore would come to her own private sanctuary, away from the concerned looks and secretive whispers. From here, Lenore could see the small white church with a high steeple in the small town across the river. She could hear the river rolling or rushing along its course and the wind whispering in the leaves of the giant trees. The river soothed Lenore’s nerves and Sissy’s as nothing else could.

  On this day in April of 1900, Lenore came to her bluff to cry away her hurt and disappointment. Her father had issued an ultimatum; stop seeing her first true love or give up her future as mistress of Twin Maples. Charlie Stuart had captured her heart the day she first walked in the bank with her father and saw him for the first time. With his warm shy smile, the soft brown eyes looking out admiringly from behind the spectacles, that thick wavy brown hair, and the pleasant voice with just a trace of an English accent, young Lenore fell in love. Charlie fell in step behind her other suitors, each wanting to win the hand of the beautiful Lenore, daughter of one of the wealthiest men in town. But, from that first encounter with the bank clerk, Lenore with the golden blond hair and big blue eyes saw no man but Charlie. Eventually the other young men dropped out of the race. All except her third cousin Dalton Wilkes, a more narcissistic, obnoxious man Lenore at the age of eighteen had never met.

  Perhaps if Lenore had used her head instead of her heart, she would have realized marrying Charlie was not in her future. The only child of James Wilkes, Lenore is destined to marry her cousin Dalton, the heir to the second largest plantation in the area. Romantic love is not a necessity in such an arranged marriage; what are important are bloodlines and money. Loyalty to family combined with ruthlessness and shrewd financial practices through the years saved the adjoining plantations from destruction during and after the War Between the Sates, making the two plantations what they are in 1900. It was that same family loyalty James Wilkes now expected of his only child, to keep both plantations strong.

  Yes, Lenore had grown up resigned to marry Dalton eventually, until Charlie came along. Today, James Wilkes told his daughter that it was time to settle down and marry. The minister will announce her engagement to Dalton Wilkes tomorrow at Sunday services. She was not to see Charlie again. Father dictated a short missive, explaining to Charlie her engagement and that the bank clerk should no longer visit Twin Maples. He even made Lenore sign the note as if it was all her idea.

  Lenore did not want to defy her father for she loved him so, but she loved Twin Maples even more than her father. James made it very plain that if she did not reject Charlie and marry Dalton, Lenore would give up her beloved Twin Maples. Given the choice of loss of true love or the loss of Twin Maple, her wise father knew what Lenore’s decision would be, or so he thought.

  Lenore did not want to give up either her lover or her home, however, and she most definitely did not want to marry Dalton with the wet slobbery lips and groping hands. What to do? After father sent off the news of her engagement to poor Charlie, Lenore ran to her room and pinned two more notes. The first, her faithful maid and friend delivered to Charlie explaining the situation and begging him to meet her at The Bluff. The second note she intended for her father. He will find the note, but not before Lenore and her love were together, forever. She had no doubt that Charlie would agree with her plan for the only thing worse to him than not having his Lenore was another man having her. If not, well Lenore had made her mind up. The Bluff, her sanctuary, would become the pedestal from which she sailed to eternity. As much as the forlorn Lenore loved the old plantation, she loved young Charlie more. Lenore could not, nay, would not live without Charlie.

  James Wilkes did find his daughter’s farewell message that evening when Lenore did not appear for dinner. Her young maid, under duress with tears running down her cheeks, capitulated and revealed her mistress’ plot. Wilkes led a search party to find his daughter. He found his bedraggled Lenore in the wee hours of the next morning, shivering with cold and fear. She returned home with her father, her rebellious spirit crushed. Where was Charlie? James put it out that his daughter was in a terrible state of shock and would allow no one to question her. Men discovered Charlie’s body caught in a dense driftwood jam downstream. Lenore took to her bed
, inconsolable. Her parents, thinking a change of environment might be beneficial to their child, sent Lenore to visit a cousin, Sarah, who was in the early months of pregnancy. Lenore remained with Sarah until after she gave birth. She returned home a few days before Christmas. Her father was quick to announce that Lenore would marry her cousin Dalton, Sunday, December 30, 1900, but Lenore jumped to her death from the Widow’s Walk the day before her wedding.

  Lenore and Charlie remain at Twin Maples even now if one gives credit to ghost stories. The couple’s ghosts can be seen on Lenore’s Bluff, from time to time, sharing passionate embraces, or sitting on the edge of the bluff, head to head, holding hands, and laughing over some secret they share. Another spectral vision seen by some people is less romantic, however; Lenore standing on the edge of her sanctuary wailing, watching as Charlie falls to his death in the muddy spring torrents of the Ohio River.

  Chapter 1

  Friday, April 21, 2017

  James Collins grew up hearing the Legends of Lenore Wilkes and Charlie Stuart. Who didn’t if one was born, raised, and lived in Hylton all his life? It was such stories as those of the young lovers and the cave of lost slaves that sparked his interest in folktales and ghost stories as a child. The same stories that led to a career in cultural anthropology and his especial area of interest, folktales, myths, and legend and how such tales influenced a people. The boogie man if a child misbehaves, the curses to explain the evil created by humans, the fairy tales whose aim is to teach a moral lesson, and the legends, whether reality or fiction, to explain the unexplainable or teach a lesson. And, of equal import, to supply entertainment on dark, stormy nights and around campfires in the wild.

  As a professor, Dr. Collins spent months entrenched within a culture to gather information. Those days went by the wayside along with his youth. The last fifteen years of his career involved imparting his knowledge to others and caring for his motherless daughter. His best and most beloved student is his own Lenore, his only daughter and child, now in New York at Columbia University working on her PhD in anthropology. At seventy-two and retired, James Collins seeks to entertain and educate by compiling the legends, myths, and otherwise tall tales gathered during the years into a book. He enlisted Lenore’s aid. The arrangement suited the needs of both, as she will apply her work in the project toward her doctorate. His trip today to Twin Maples is mental preparation before setting the true story of Lenore Wilkes down on paper. James is ready to compile the last chapter of their book, the story of Lenore and Twin Maples. After Paul Wilkes death, his housekeeper presented Dr. Collins with an old wooden box. Inside, James delighted in the treasure left to him, papers, documents, diaries, pictures, ledgers, hundreds of years of the Wilkes’ family contained in a simple wooden trunk.

  “Use the information wisely, Jim,” Grace Belk warned.

  James has spent the last twenty years studiously reading and examining each document, studying old sepia photos and tintypes through his magnifying glass. He never revealed any details of what he discovered to Lenore. This last chapter was a gift to his daughter; soon enough, she will know the truth of Lenore Wilkes and Charlie Stuart.

  The last known descendent of the Wilkes’ family to carry on the name, Paul Wilkes, lived at the old plantation until his death twenty-five years ago at age of ninety-five. James often visited the elderly gentleman. Mr. Wilkes would sit in the old rocking chair and talk about the history of Hylton, Kentucky. They would swap tales. Paul, whose only travel consisted of his years in the military during World War I, told James tales of the war in exchange for stories gathered in the younger man’s travels. With the death of James’ wife, his daughter Lenore joined her father whenever possible. Lenore listened attentively with her beautiful cognac eyes, the same as her mother’s, never leaving the faces of the two storytellers. Unwittingly, the men sowed the seeds of curiosity that led Lenore to follow in her father’s footsteps.

  He wished she were here with him today. They would have packed a picnic lunch and partaken of their meal while sitting on Lenore’s beloved bluff, watching the barges pass by. Lenore loved that old river. It may well be they would have stayed late enough to watch for the ghostly apparitions reputed to be Lenore herself. Sightings of the specter increase every year in April, the month Lenore lost Charlie, her own lover. I wished now I had spent the day searching local archives and saved this until Lenore came home for a visit. That would have been the way to go. Too late now.

  Oh well, enough wool-gathering, James told himself. He drank the last of his morning coffee and left the comfort of his rocking chair; the same old rocking chair Paul Wilkes once sat in. Within a few minutes, James Collins was on his way to the old Twin Maples plantation. He hated to see the land developed, but James knew that was the place’s future. Only fifty acres of the original two Wilkes plantations remained intact. Developers and land real estate investors bought up the lands over the years, building subdivisions or allowing the land to lay fallow. The city annexed these subdivisions several years back, increasing both Hylton’s size and tax revenue. The Twin Maples and the adjoining remnant of the old plantation, Maple Bluff, remain in private hands thus far. The new mayor of Hylton, Brad Andrews, is in negotiations to buy the two sections. He wants the old manor house to come down, and Twin Maples and Maple Bluff will become a city park. It could be worse, reasoned James. A park beat the heck out of another shopping complex, subdivision, or a hotel.

  As he drove, Collins pondered the story of Lenore Wilkes. He and Lenore discussed this subject just the last night via Facetime. Lenore believed the story a warning against the archaic custom of the times of prearranged marriage. Lenore Wilkes drove herself mad grieving the loss of Charlie and because she was promised in marriage to a cousin she despised. James Wilkes chose to support inheritance bloodlines over the happiness of his own child. James argued that the prearranged marriages, common until the eighteenth century, were necessary to forge political, military, and social alliances to strengthen communities. She laughed, accusing him of just wanting her to marry his best friend’s son, so that the two friends’ antique fishing reel collections became as one. That would be a fringe benefit, James admitted, of the marriage of Lenore and Bill Travers’ son Shane.

  James and Bill became fast and forever friends as children. When both their wives became pregnant near the same time, the men rejoiced that their friendship would be handed down to their sons. Jim and Bill visualized father and son fishing trips with their sons and sitting on the bleachers together cheering the boys on the basketball court. Sure enough, Jenny Travers delivered a bouncing baby boy. The old friends planned the first play dates.

  The picture changed when Elenora gave birth two months later to the most beautiful baby girl James was ever to see. Yes, the proud parents named the blessing, Lenore for she was the light of their lives. It was just a coincidence that the child’s mother grew up in the small town of Lenore, Kentucky and was an American Literature instructor with a penchant for Poe. Of course, the father agreed to the name. Lenore was after all, a diminutive of his beautiful wife’s name. Secretly, James was pleased to name the mysterious young lady he held swaddled in pink after the most famous legend in his home town of Hylton.

  Well, fishing trips and ballgames may be out, but the friends were sure a marriage between their offspring loomed in the future. Visions of shared grandkids, marshmallows and hot dogs over an open fire, and big Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners replaced the earth worms and basketball shoes. Alas, Lenore and Shane were at loggerheads from the start. Shane took the role of pseudo big brother, never missing a chance to be a protector and tormentor to Lenore. Lenore, independent from the womb, did not need any stinking boy to protect her; she can take care of herself, thank you. Their school years highlighted the differences between the boy and girl. Lenore, quiet, sometimes shy, and pensive, excelled in academics. Shane, athletic, funny, and outgoing excelled in sports. Lenore’s and Shane’s personalities evolved further during their college years. Their fat
her’s hopes soared initially only to fall when the two friends did not seem in the least bit romantically attracted to each. Lenore once fell head long in love with a man she met in New York, that relationship ended abruptly when the police shot the man during a robbery. Turns out the jerk was a first-class jewel thief NYPD and the FBI had been after for five years. Lenore admits to feeling more foolish than broken hearted. Now 32, Lenore and Shane dated others occasionally but neither has been in a committed relationship. Still, their fathers harbored hopes for an alliance deep in the recesses of their hearts.

  James missed his turn, lost in his thoughts as he was accustomed to of late. Once back on track, he soon pulled up in front of the gate separating Twin Maples from the main road. He received permission from the owner earlier this week, via the local relator who handled the property. Bethany Allan, the agent in care of the property, supplied keys for both the gate and the old manor house. His plan is to walk the grounds around the house first, ending up at Lenore’s bluff overlooking the Ohio River before entering the house.

  He and Lenore decided last night that since she could not be present today James will dictate notes, using his cell phone, about his impression of the old place and ideas that may pop in his head for the book. James will email the notes to her at the end of the day. James never carried a camera anymore; the photos taken with his iPhone would suffice for his photography needs. Two hours later, James sent all notes and photos from the grounds to Lenore before continuing to the house. Instead of following the direct path from the bluff, his last stop before going in house, James decided to take a more circuitous route prolonging his time outdoors on this warm, sunny, spring day.

  The sun filtering through the newly sprouted leaves ruffled by the gentle breeze, filled the man with gratitude and peace. He was in no hurry go inside today. He wondered if the weather was as nice where Lenore is. James paused here and there to snap a picture of a new spring flower or a take a video of a male robin singing enticements to his mate preparing her for their yearly rituals. At last, he sighed and made his way to the house. Late afternoon had arrived with a few clouds, so he hastened to conclude his outing and return home in time to receive Lenore’s usual Friday night phone call. James quickened his pace with little regard to the underbrush and felled logs littering the forest floor, until he tripped and fell face first.